Brian Deese, top White House economic adviser, will be resigning from his position in mid-February, the Daily Caller reported. Biden made the announcement Thursday but didn't say who would replace him.
"Brian has a unique ability to translate complex policy challenges into concrete actions that improve the lives of American people," the president said in a statement. "He has helped steer my economic vision into reality, and managed the transition of our historic economic recovery to steady and stable growth," Biden said.
"I am grateful to his wife Kara and his children Adeline and Clark for letting us borrow Brian," Biden continued. "I know well what it must have been like to say goodbye to him for the regular long commute to Washington, and I know they’re excited to welcome him home."
Deese has been instrumental in some of Biden's most radical and expensive programs. He was the director of the National Economic Council and helped with Biden's signature COVID-19 relief bill, the New York Times reported.
Almost as soon as Biden was elected, Deese got to work on putting together what would become the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. It was passed in a bipartisan effort to help ease pandemic-related economic woes and made Deese a darling in his party.
"Economists can — they can put you to sleep, and they talk, and when they get done, you don’t know what the hell you’ve heard," Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) gushed about Deese following the bill's passage. "That isn’t the case with Deese."
However, the bill included so-called climate change relief measures, changes to health care, and lots of spending that had nothing to do with coronavirus. Even the Times admitted that "Mr. Deese’s legacy as director will include the high inflation that plagued the economy last year, which economists attribute in some part to spending from" the legislation.
The bill's success prompted Deese to continue to push Biden's economic agenda. Rather than rest on their laurels, Deese and others on Biden's team got to work to follow up with what would become his $4 trillion economic agenda.
Even with these successes, the left has always looked askance at Deese's ties to the private sector. "We were very skeptical of Deese’s decision to go to BlackRock and what that portended," Jeff Hauser, the director of the Revolving Door Project, said of his experience at the Wall Street firm.
"He has worked out surprisingly well." It seems Deese got a pass because he bought off his critics with bloated leftist legislation.
He also had the advantage of previous bona fides from his time working under former President Barack Obama. Deese was instrumental in pouring taxpayer dollars into the auto industry money pit in the form of bailouts.
Deese also helped craft the climate change treaty in Paris during the Obama administration, which tied America's future to a pact to move toward green energy. Former President Donald Trump canceled that agreement in 2017.
"We have a lot to gain from expanding clean energy and energy efficiency – they are some of the fasting growing sectors of our economy," Deese told the Guardian at the time. "Donald Trump can’t cancel the Paris agreement, and he can’t cancel the momentum that is behind it both diplomatically and economically," he claimed.
Biden is heading into his potential reelection campaign already at a disadvantage. Unfortunately for him, the 2024 election season will be that much more challenging without a political mastermind like Deese.
